The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Monday, announced the men’s squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022, starting August 27 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Superstar Virat Kohli has returned to India’s T20I squad after a break of more than a month following the conclusion of the England tour on July 17. Similarly, opener KL Rahul has also made a comeback as vice-captain after being unavailable in all of India’s fixtures since the end of IPL 2022 in May.
Notably, Rahul first suffered a groin injury and then underwent surgery for a sports hernia. Afterwards, the Bengaluru-born tested positive for Covid-19 and was ruled out of the West Indies tour.
The major setback for India is that their frontline pacer Jasprit Bumrah, was not part of the squad as the fast bowler has been ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury. Further, Harshal Patel was also unavailable for selection owing to a rib injury.
In the absence of Bumrah and Patel, the Rohit Sharma-led side will go into the multi-team tournament with only three frontline fast-bowling options in the form of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan, while Hardik Pandya would serve as the fast-bowling all-rounder.
India Squad for Asia Cup 2022:
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal
Stand-by players: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar